A lesson that survives

Spielberg bows program to collect video of Holocaust testimonials

Nearly 20 years ago to the day, Steven Spielberg trekked to Poland to begin filming on “Schindler’s List.” On Feb. 27, the helmer reminisced about the pic with a room full of students at Pasadena’s Chandler School.

“I went to Poland, and I realized quite instantly through shooting in all the actual locations, that as a Jew, I wouldn’t have survived five minutes there,” Spielberg recalled.

In 1994, the filmmaker established USC’s Shoah Foundation to chronicle the testimonials of myriad genocide survivors and witnesses. At the Chandler School, Spielberg joined with USC Shoah’s Stephen Smith and Kori Street in launching the IWitness video challenge, which brings those testimonies into the classroom.

“But quite frankly, when I’ve done this with students, they figure out the technology,” Street quipped. “They don’t need me.”